Walmart WPDN R7T40WWHF1 firmware

I received my walmart WPDN R7T40WWHF1 yesterday, and started to analyze it to see if we can do anything about the bricked units and also decide if mods are safe and perhaps cook some up if needed.

It looks very much like my other WPDNs, has the same accessories, same charger NO charger is different, it has a 5v charger, not a 12v charger like the older units. I haven't opened it up to see if it is different or not. From the outside, it looks and smells the same.

ADB does work (as expected) and I searched everything for a copy of the original firmware, and there is none on the unit. This is different from the other WPDNs, which had a copy of their original firmware on their internal sdcard.

Tried the pc updater on the Pandigital web site, and it said no updates were available for this model. Browsing the updater found no models for firmware versions that appeared close. As we already knew, there is nothing on the mirror site either.

THANKS PANDIGITAL, ONCE AGAIN YOU HAVE SCREWED YOUR CUSTOMERS leaving them no way to recover a messed up unit. Either they are just slow releasing it, or this is intentional to try to stop anyone from making modifications. It is a short-sided decision, as we have already seen the bricked units being returned when they probably could have just been reflashed to fix them. But for $67, what do you expect?

I put in busybox so I could get some additional linux commands going that I needed, and searched around a bit. While the firmware was not there, there was a flash log file there that indicated the firmware file name they used was:

C1SL20_20120224_B_PD_INX7E_ENG_6410POP.zip

Not sure what the C1 means but we knew about the SL_20_20120224 part from the settings panel. Looks like they may have flashed from an external sdcard initially then removed it?

There is a new fused section /cache which does have a zip file in it, but that zip only has the user apps and the initial user data in it, nothing really of value.

Bottom line seems to be that until we can find the firmware zip for this thing, we are probably on hold.

If someone wants to send me a bricked unit, I would be willing to try to manually fuse a recovery image into it which might get the unit back enough to put one of the 2011 firmwares in it until we can do better.

I did snatch the user & system apps out of it, the build.prop (nothing unusual there), and the framework - all with an eye towards a set of modular flashes for gapps etc like we had for the 2011 versions. I could proceed with this, but with no firmware available to flash back to if something goes wrong, I am reluctant to do this and would still consider any updates to these units on hold till further notice.

I am going to update the wiki a little bit with some info about this box and point it to this thread.

THANKS PANDIGITAL, ONCE AGAIN YOU HAVE SCREWED YOUR CUSTOMERS leaving them no way to recover a messed up unit. Either they are just slow releasing it, or this is intentional to try to stop anyone from making modifications. It is a short-sided decision, as we have already seen the bricked units being returned when they probably could have just been reflashed to fix them. But for $67, what do you expect? ...snip...

I am going to update the wiki a little bit with some info about this box and point it to this thread.

OK I think I may have successfully reverse engineered the C1SL20_20120224_B_PD_INX7E_ENG_6410POP.zip firmware. It was a major pain, having to go into the unit I bought and snatch all the block images, then try to figure out where inside the flash ram block the images really ended, use a hex editor to trim the files, get them saved off to files, and finally use them to build a new ROM.

I can't guarantee it will work, but if you are bricked anyway, you really don't have anything to use.

I would prefer to get someone to test it out before I put it out in the wild. I do have one copy of the kernel only posted, and am waiting to hear back if that works or not.

I made two versions of this - one with the regular recovery and the other with the clockwork recovery.

So stay tuned, hopefully help is on the way soon. If someone that is bricked but thinks their unit may not be totally bricked wants to try one, speak up and I will give you the link. Once a couple people can confirm it works, I will post the link here.

In order to even try this, you will either need to have ADB working, or possibly have an external sdcard that you can put the flash on and hope your unit works enough to find the file. I think they might, because at least one person got clockwork recovery to flash, which is a real good sign. It may be that most of the bricked units are just not finding any file to flash because there isn't one, and with a messed up flash and no flash found to try to recover to, they just aren't doing anything.

1. Ths Wiki has been updated with some info concerning this latest Novel, which has several subtle differences from the older units. The Wiki points back to this thread. I have a feeling this will become one of those threads where the latest info will be in the first post, and will get updated as things happen.

2. The kernel has been successfully recovered out of a virgin unit and the first bricked unit has been recovered.

3. As a result of a known good kernel, I am close to reverse engineering a full flash that may be able to be used to fix any bricks still out there.

4. KG's Gapps flash is confirmed to work, but it is still risky since no flash is available (yet) to restore the unit if things go wrong. If you must do it, this flash will restore your framework and build.prop (with an SDK of 7) back to their original settings. If you feel have to do it, and you understand the risks, make sure you flash this after your get the market working.

This flash will fix a bad kernel (only). This link is for the kernel by itself to flash in using adb.

5. A general comment, the number of apps that the market will offer to an SDK of 7 is dwindling, as more and more app developers are insisting on a newer version of Android. The same thing is happening to iPhone, by the way.

then see if the charge light comes on when you charge it (that is a good sign if it does)

plug it into your computer and see if windows recognizes it (does it ding when you plug it in)

if your computer recognizes it, I can help you get adb (android debug bridge) running on it and we should be able to flash the recovery partitions and the kernel manually, then you can reflash it with the firmware I have made from mine that hopefully will bring it back

then see if the charge light comes on when you charge it (that is a good sign if it does)

This is ok

plug it into your computer and see if windows recognizes it (does it ding when you plug it in)

The computer reconizes

if your computer recognizes it, I can help you get adb (android debug bridge) running on it and we should be able to flash the recovery partitions and the kernel manually, then you can reflash it with the firmware I have made from mine that hopefully will bring it back

see if it reboots, if it does, then you are unbricked, but you still have more work to do. you probably need to reflash the whole thing to get all the junk out of the file system from the previous flash

I would suggest putting in clockwork recovery, which is a better recovery than the stock one, especially if you plan on contonuing to mess with the unit. if you just want it back and you will never mess with it again, stick with the stock recovery. but if you do plan on flashing it again with gapps (market) or something like that, then download this, and copy it with windows (do not unzip it) to the sdcard (PD_Novel) and then flash it in. that will install clockwork recovery which is much more forgiving to flashing mishaps

let me know how all this goes and then I will have the full flash ready for you to try. you will be the first to try it I think

I am looking for a beta tester to test a full flash for one of these units. I have something that I am pretty sure will work, but I am not willing to flash my unit because it is better that we have an untouched one for the time being

I have a version that puts in clockwork recovery, and one that puts in the standard (semi-useless) recovery

this may be a situation where you have to flash it twice to get the user apps to go in, due to the partitioning in half of the internal sdcard

the original firmware had a zip file in it that contained the user apps, and somehow it unpacked it during installation after the card was partitioned. but without access to the real original firmware, I can't see how they did that.

so I made a version that might do what the original did, in other words, it has a blank user data image (like the original) and it contains the zip file of the user apps in the cache image and hopefully it will magically extract the user apps like it is supposed to

if that fails, I have another version that does have the userdata image fully populated. that is the one that will likely have to be flashed twice, because the first time it is going to re-partition the card, and wipe out all the user data that just got flashed. the second time you flash it, it should see the card is already paritioned and leave it alone and not blow away all the user apps

before I put these in the wild, I am looking for someone who I can pm or email the links to privately, and your willingness to test them all. my hope is the ones with the blank user data that only need to be flashed once will work correctly, then I can get rid of the ones have will need to be flashed twice. but that won't be known until someone tries them.

hopefully someone that was previously bricked and partially recovered will step forward to try these. these are what you need to get fully back to the original state.

if they work, then it will be safe to flash the gapps and the rest of the a la carte mods since we know you can flash back to original, and we can move forward again

of course, if Pandigital would just release the dang firmware none of this would be needed...

@mac1-131
Thank you so much for all the work you have put in here and for getting the WPDN from walmart to do it with.
You are by far the most capable with a wallyworld WPDN and I am in envy of how you reverse engineered the image.
I look forward to the possibilities of a mod in the future and hope to see more from you in the future on here
Thank you MS Burnout for the recognition that Mac deserved. This was no fun task I am sure and all because
Pandigital wont give up what they are obligated to.
Thanks again,
Erik

Thanks for the work Mac1-131. My unit is either broke or bricked: Charge light RED when plugged in then turns GREEN after a few minutes. I get a blank screen only (no ADB connection) when power switch is toggled. I have tried reset, VOL-UP + Power, VOL-UP + Power + Reset, and unplugging the battery with no luck. I would like to try your firmware before returning the unit.

Bought this model from Walmart based on their description of 1G RAM + 4G internal storage. What a false claim that turned out to be. 1M RAM available out of the box. Can't download a thing.
I am greatly looking forward to seeing a working flash that will make this thing useable.

Bought this model from Walmart based on their description of 1G RAM + 4G internal storage. What a false claim that turned out to be. 1M RAM available out of the box. Can't download a thing.I am greatly looking forward to seeing a working flash that will make this thing useable.

Couple things willichan...

First, it is 4gb. There IS a 4gb sdcard inside it. BUT... the OS partitions it in two, 2gb available to the system to install apps (/data/app), and 2gb user space available to you (/PD_Novel).

What I think is happening to you (and everyone else) is that many - but not all - apps look for user space to store some of their data on. Since these are generic apps written for Android, they expect that user space to be called /sdcard. The way Pandigital mounts the sdcards, the internal user space is NOT /sdcard - it is /PD_Novel. This makes the apps think no space is available to them.

I don't know why Pandigital did this. On the older units, they were not this way. Internal was /sdcard and external was /PD_Novel. But starting in 2011, when they went completely open platform, they reversed them.

So if you don't have an external card, some of the apps panic and won't install or won't work.

I think the easy way out of your problem is to just buy and put in an external sdcard. They are cheap enough. Then the apps will be happier and I think you will find it works much batter.

Remember - it's really just an eReader, and running other 3rd party apps is a bonus and YMMV.

First, it is 4gb. There IS a 4gb sdcard inside it. BUT... the OS partitions it in two, 2gb available to the system to install apps (/data/app), and 2gb user space available to you (/PD_Novel).

What I think is happening to you (and everyone else) is that many - but not all - apps look for user space to store some of their data on. Since these are generic apps written for Android, they expect that user space to be called /sdcard. The way Pandigital mounts the sdcards, the internal user space is NOT /sdcard - it is /PD_Novel. This makes the apps think no space is available to them.

I don't know why Pandigital did this. On the older units, they were not this way. Internal was /sdcard and external was /PD_Novel. But starting in 2011, when they went completely open platform, they reversed them.

So if you don't have an external card, some of the apps panic and won't install or won't work.

I think the easy way out of your problem is to just buy and put in an external sdcard. They are cheap enough. Then the apps will be happier and I think you will find it works much batter.

Remember - it's really just an eReader, and running other 3rd party apps is a bonus and YMMV.

The problem I am having seems to be that the /data partition is mounted on a 32 MB RAM partition. The 2 GB internal is then mounted to /data/app. This is a problem because apps are cached in /data/dalvik-cache and executed from there (10MB+ of the 32MB). In addition it appears that when installing apps they are first copied to a temporary directory on the 32 mb /data partition. Also, many data files are kept in /data/data -- limited by the 32 MB partition. The remainder of the 32 MB partition can be filled by simply browsing the installed market app (which adds data in /data/data).

I believe that all these problems are fixable and I was working on this when my unit died and had to be returned. I am still deciding whether to get another PDN or get a slightly more expensive unit.

Ahhh... that's new information. I have both (old and new) and when I go to settings, SD card & Device storage settings, the old original Novel says 246mb available. df says 192mb for /data

On the new walmart Novel, settings says .89gb (890mb) and df says 192mb for /data

So both of my units are identical - both new and old show 192512K for /data

How are you seeing the lower amount you are quoting?

I wish I had my unit so I could get the exact numbers but I just used mount and df (and busybox mount and df) from adb. Can you post the output from mount and df (busybox if possible)? And the output from cat /proc/mmc?